A fund-raising effort by Windermere’s Caroline Kaye has netted almost £8000 for charity.
Caroline, co-owner of the Cedar Manor Hotel, ran the Great North Run last year and the London Marathon last week to raise money for Lupus UK.
After crossing the finish line in London, she joined husband Jonathan to draw the winning ticket in a raffle which had been part of her fund-raising. By chance the winner, Brian Godfrey, checked in at the hotel a couple of days later.
He won a two-night stay with dinner at the Cedar Manor, a one-month personal training plan from Helen Westmoreland-Nicholson, and a sports remedial massage from Sarah Todd. Both Helen and Sarah helped Caroline prepare to run the Marathon.
Her tally of £7760 is still growing. Her effort in the Great North Run was the highest in the country for Lupus UK, and Caroline was one of the top 5% charity fundraisers in 2014 using the Just Giving online scheme. She also sold more than 2000 raffle tickets.
“I wanted to do a marathon before my 50th birthday, and I managed it by just a couple of weeks,” said Caroline, who completed the race in just over five hours. “It was a fantastic experience and I want to do it again next year.”
She added: “My daughter Natalie was diagnosed with Lupus when she was 15, six years ago. I hadn’t heard about the condition and it’s still little known. Lupus is an incurable disease whereby the immune system attacks the body, and its organs; the skin, blood, brain, heart lungs are affected and it manifests itself in different ways.
“Natalie is a sufferer but appears normal and has a “normal” life, with what we call flare-ups, when the disease attacks her. She has a special doctor who looks after her at St Thomas’s Hospital London. So it’s really important to me to help Lupus UK research causes and possible cures.”
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